Exigency Rollback Will Reduce Postage Rates on April 10

For the first time in a century, postage rates are scheduled to decrease next month. The USPS will reduce mail rates an average of 4.3% on April 10, 2016. The price of First Class postage will go from $.49 cents to $.47 cents.

The rate reduction is only for “market dominant” products such as letters, large envelopes, and postcards. “Competitive” shipping products like Priority Mail®, parcels and packages are not affected by the rate decrease.

This rate change is due to the repeal of the January 2014 exigent increase of 4.3%. The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) allowed the USPS to institute an emergency rate increase as a result of financial losses suffered due to the 2008 recession. The increase had a cap $4.6 billion, and once this amount had been recouped the increase was to be rescinded. Now that the USPS has hit that target, the PRC has ordered that the exigent increase be removed.

There will be no CPI rate increase this year.

Information on pricing is available on the Postal Explorer website here.